Unicorn permits to run any code for any CPU on any OS
I found this very interesting OS/Emulator project when searching for ways to workaround the dreaded "No SSE2-capable CPU" problem (Firefox etc.)
I first tried to find out if there's any way to emulate the SSE2 instruction set for CPUs that only have SSE/MMX.
Then I found out that Qemu also has a User Mode that permits running processes on a different CPU without emulating a whole system, while transparently providing access to the host apis. Unfortunately this is only available for linux as of yet.
Last I found Unicorn-
http://www.unicorn-engine.org/showcase/
containing the subproject Usercorn:
https://github.com/lunixbochs/usercorn
The following image was used on the usercorn site, but is from randal as next post cites:
(sorry, did not know!)
[ external image ]
Unicorn - The ultimate CPU emulator
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Unicorn - The ultimate CPU emulator
Last edited by Alahndro on Sat Nov 05, 2016 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Unicorn - The ultimate CPU emulator
Universal Converter Box.
Give Randall credit when using his comics.
Give Randall credit when using his comics.
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Re: Unicorn - The ultimate CPU emulator
I wonder if we can use any of this at a low level. I'm not 100% sure what it does. Now if it can handle various architectures, could any of it be used in HAL? I mean, if we can see how other deep-level software deals with different real hardware, we could detect and adjust for it, providing a consistent hardware and kernel environment to the rest. I don't know much about the kernel, but I understand HAL is much like a master driver and minimizes the hardware differences to Windows. Of course, in this case, it is x86 to x86.
Just thinking out loud.
Just thinking out loud.
Re: Unicorn - The ultimate CPU emulator
It seems to use parts of QEMU, and its JIT. And to implement a JIT you need to use the OS' memory manager API. This is something that you won't be able to do at very low level, such as inside the HAL.
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Re: Unicorn - The ultimate CPU emulator
Yeah, I was afraid it would be like that.
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